This invention relates to a container tipping apparatus for unloading bulk material containers, such as sugar cane bins.
It is known in the sugar industry to load cut sugar cane in a cane field into an open-topped bin located on a trailer or other suitable wheeled conveyance for transport to a mill or other unloading station. With a known unloading system, the loaded bin is first lifted off its conveyance at the unloading station and is then transferred from the conveyance to a tipping apparatus operative to rotate the bin along an upward arcuate path to overturn or tilt it to discharge its contents under gravity. Thereafter the emptied bin is lowered again by the tipping apparatus, and is finally transferred from the tipping apparatus back to the conveyance. Distinct operations are required to transfer the loaded bin from the conveyance to the tipping apparatus and to transfer the emptied bin from the tipping apparatus back to the conveyance. Such an unloading arrangement is not only relatively complicated and expensive in construction, but the unloading sequence is also time consuming, so that a bin has an extended turn-around time at the unloading station.